Kanwaljit Singh and Anuradha Patel's two sons, Sidharth and Aditiya, lived through the ordeal of getting stuck in the recent Srinagar floods. Sidharth, 24, is a musician and Aditiya, 20, is an artist. We spoke to them about the ordeal and what they went through physically, but more than that, emotionally. Talking to us, Aditiya said, “We were on a houseboat on Jhelum when we heard that Srinagar had started to flood a little. Mom and dad told us to leave, but we did not, not knowing how bad it could get. We woke up the next morning to see the water having gone onto the road. We knew something was not good, but did not tell our parents and decided to move to Dal Lake. We were rescued on the way, with our suitcases in our hands, and got onto a truck to reach there along with 25 other people. Dal Lake was not flooded at that time, but about 1-2 feet of water had started coming onto the main road. We then moved into a guest house and stayed there for a couple of days, till the floods started coming and the food shortage started happening. We realised that we had been stupid, not listening to our parents despite them warning us to come back. I was lying to mom, telling her that we are going trekking, instead of telling her what really was happening there. Our travel agent told us that it would all be okay and we stupidly listened to him. Soon, there was no food and we started eating at mosques and graveyards. The graveyard was behind the mountain, where the locals were serving food so courteously and generously.We also ate at the masjid. They would feed us lots of rice and a spoon of dal. We could not even think of offering money to them as they did it with so much of love and generosity. They did not expect anything but love from us. On the other hand, there were people who were charging Rs 4,000 per blanket per night. We then trekked up to go to Nehru Park. We should not say this, but for the first time after the floods, we saw the police and the army sitting up even though they should have been down. We could not even once see a cop or an army person down, where we all needed help. It was only the locals who helped everybody. We felt the touch with humanity. We then caught a half-hour shikara and were moved to the governor's house. We could see people lined up there. There was total chaos and starting then were the three worst days of our lives. The Kashmiris told us that since we were tourists, we would be given priority to go. But we saw that only the VIPs were given priority to get onto the choppers and get out, whereas normal people were made to stand in lines. And that is what angered the locals and they started throwing stones at the helicopters. They felt that at such a time, even if you cannot help someone, you cannot allow people to jump the queue, as it was a matter of life and death for each one equally. Food had now become a scarce commodity and we started saving our bread in our pockets. The authorities would throw some one apple at 50 of us and everyone would be fighting for it. I decided to go to them and ask them peacefully and somehow, managed a roti. I gave 1/3rd of the roti to my brother and offered the 1/3rd to another person, who said to me, 'You eat. I know that I can manage for another five hours without eating.' When your mind is hungry, you don't think of a loo. We did not shit for those days, as we did not feel the need to. We obviously did not take a bath for those 6-7 days. But we would feel thirsty and hungry, but there was no water, so we started drinking water from the taps that was grey. It was the flood water, which had had all the bodies floating in it. We slept on the road for three days. It was so cold at 6 degrees. We had no blankets and thus, would not even get sleep. We also had to keep checking if someone had broken the line. We saw people getting heart attacks in front of us. We saw a lady who had just delivered twins. She wrapped her kids with the sari, as she had nothing else. But she wanted to escape. My brother Sidharth once got a heat stroke at 12 in the afternoon. At that point, there was a lathi charge, but he had passed out, so he was right in between the chaos, where above him the lathi charge was happening. Since there was no food, it then got to a stage when we started chewing branches. I remember I had once got a banana at the governor's house and that was the yummiest banana I have ever had in my life. It took us three days in the queue to get the chopper to go to the airport to catch a flight to Delhi and from there, to Mumbai. All throughout, we were most worried about our parents, as we knew that they would be crying here and going mad. Mom has been like a friend to us and dad, an older brother. We like showing that we are strong outside, but we are both very emotional. I know that if I had cried there, I would have collapsed. I came back to Mumbai, came back home and once everyone went to sleep, I sat in my room and cried. Everything came back to my head. While it will take me a long time to get over it, the last few days taught us the value of everything, right from a pillow, to water, to food, to music, to the value of life.“